IPS superintendent wants to ask the state to erase years of bad grades, giving some struggling schools a fresh start

Indianapolis Public Schools Superintendent Lewis Ferebee said today that he’s interested in giving some of the district’s long-struggling schools a fresh start.

After the Indiana State Board of Education brought up the possibility, Ferebee said he plans to ask to “reset” the A-F grades at a handful of schools in the district’s “transformation zone,” which includes a subset of schools that have received failing marks for years and are getting extra attention from the district and the state without being taken over.

If the state board allows the district to request a reset — and if the Indiana Department of Education signs off — the schools would essentially be considered new, erasing years of low letter grades and possibly helping schools avoid more state intervention. State Superintendent Jennifer McCormick said she’d support it.

“Are we going to get hung up on the punitive part, or are we going to get hung up on what they feel is best for the students in IPS?” McCormick said.

The grade reset option came up unexpectedly Wednesday during a conversation between the state board and IPS about altering the district’s transformation zone plan, which board members said could demonstrate a big enough change to get a reset approved. And it could have significant implications for the schools and their reputations, as many of them are in the middle of dramatic overhauls.

“We really were focused on ensuring that our transformation zone plan was strong and ultimately would be supported,” Ferebee said. “Now that we have that support, we’ll go down the path of reset.”

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Several schools in the zone have seen at least three years of F grades, and four trigger state intervention. It’s unclear what, exactly, that would mean for schools in the transformation zone, which already involves the state. But it’s possible that a reset could help the schools avoid more outside intervention.

According to Maggie Paino, the director of accountability for the education department, schools would have to show that that was not their main motivation. Any school can apply for a grade reset, she said, but to get the request granted, the state must determine that the schools meet three key criteria:

They need to show a significant change in student population.

They need to show they’ve had a major shift in “education philosophy,” which could include staff overhauls or big changes to curriculum.

The state has to be assured that the school is not requesting the change just to skirt accountability rules.

If the reset did allow schools to avoid further involvement from the state, that would help Ferebee achieve one of his key goals: retaining more control over school improvement.

“When the district is empowered to own the work, I think the chances of getting better results are much higher,” he said.

But plans for a “reset” raise questions about whether the district remains confident that the transformation zone is enough to help the schools boost their performance, and thus, their letter grades. And, it’s potentially redundant — If the transformation zone schools improve as intended and grades go up, they no longer risk bringing on state sanctions, making past grades less important.

It also raises questions about why the state would be open to shifting its accountability strategy for so many schools when the transformation zone itself is still in an early stage.

Ron Sandlin, the board’s director of policy and legislation, said schools in transformation zones should show improvement after two years and sustain that for at least three more. Some of the schools in IPS’s zone will have been part of the zone for two years this year, and most remain in the lowest categories.

“Two years in the zone will be a real proof-point for the schools that have been there,” Sandlin said.

New York City charters burn through principals faster than district schools, report finds

As the principal at Renaissance Charter School, Stacey Gauthier’s job extends well beyond supervising teachers. She manages fundraising, lobbies elected officials to support charter schools, and even responds to issues raised by the teachers union.

“We are basically our own district,” she said, noting that the work of running an independent charter school can be a challenge without the infrastructure that comes with a school system or even a large charter network.

Despite that heavy workload, Gauthier has stayed in her role for 11 years, making her an outlier among charter principals. According to a first-of-its-kind report released earlier this month by the Manhattan Institute, a conservative-leaning think tank, the city’s charter schools generally churn through principals at a much higher rate than traditional district schools.

Last school year, 25 percent of the city’s charter school principals were new, more than double the turnover rate at district schools. That level of turnover represents something of a paradox: Studies show principal turnover can hurt student achievement, but research has also shown the city’s charter schools generally have higher state test scores than district schools do.

“If the research is right” about the consequences of principal turnover, said Marcus Winters, a Manhattan Institute fellow and the report’s author, “by addressing it, [charter schools] could improve even more.”

One reason could be differences in student demographics. Since charter schools enroll a greater share of low-income students and students of color than district schools on average, that could make for a more challenging environment that contributes to churn. But controlling for differences in student demographics — including proportions of English learners, students with disabilities, those coming from poor families, and race — the report found no meaningful effect on turnover.

Another possible reason: Charter principals are easier to fire than district principals who typically have more union protections. A charter principal who runs a school that is seen as low performing is easier to replace, the theory goes, explaining higher levels of turnover. But the data don’t back up that theory. Even after taking into account differences in school performance as measured by school quality reports, higher turnover “was not driven by overall school performance,” Winters found.

It’s also possible charter schools are just more difficult work environments in ways that are difficult to measure, including some schools’ adoption of a “no excuses” ethos that tells educators that a student’s life circumstances should never excuse performance issues at school. (The report does not include breakdowns of individual charter schools or networks.)

James Merriman, CEO of the New York City Charter School Center, said there could be some truth to the idea that charter schools are tougher work environments, but added that some of the turnover could be related to fierce competition for leadership talent.

“There’s such a huge supply-demand imbalance for high-quality principals,” he said.

The report includes another puzzling trend — turnover in district and charter schools fluctuates significantly over time. Over the past 10 years, turnover at district schools ranged from 8.7 to 14 percent each year. At charters, turnover ranged from 7 to nearly 34 percent. Those swings meant that in two of the last 10 years, district turnover was slightly higher than it was at charters.

Winters, the report’s author, didn’t come to a firm conclusion about why the turnover rates seemed to shift significantly from year to year.

“I left this paper with more questions than answers,” he said.

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Letters to J.B.: Here’s what 10 Illinois educators said governor-elect Pritzker should prioritize

As governor-elect and national early childhood education advocate J.B. Pritzker assembles his transition team and builds out his early agenda, we asked educators to weigh in with items he should consider.

Here are 10 of their responses, which range from pleas for more staffing to more counseling and mental health services. Letters have been edited only for clarity and length. Got something to add? Use the comment section below or tell us on Twitter using #PritzkerEdu.

From: A non-profit employee who works with schools in the city and suburbs

Letter to J.B.: I work with a number of students from the City of Chicago and sadly most of them lack basic skills. Most of the students lack the ability to read and write properly, and perform below grade level. It is alarming how many students don’t have critical-thinking and analytical skills. The lack of education in low-income and minority population will hurt our city and state in years to come.

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From: A youth organizer at Morrill Elementary, a K-8 school on Chicago’s Southwest Side

Letter to J.B.: Morrill School has suffered from constant turnover due to an unstable Chicago Public Schools environment that cares more about upholding its own self-interest than the people it should be serving. We need representatives that will advocate for what communities say they need!

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From: A music teacher at a Chicago charter school

Letter to J.B.: I work at a charter school and I don’t think we are doing the best we can for our kids. Our school’s policies are too harsh and dehumanizing.

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From: A Chicago charter school social worker

Letter to J.B.: We’ve cut mental health services throughout the city and that has crippled us. Parents have a hard time getting jobs and having enough money to supply basic needs.

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From: A Chicago principal

Letter to J.B.: My school is 100 percent free- and reduced-price lunch-eligible, or low-income population. We are a middle years International Baccalaureate school. Our children were once were the lowest performing in the area and now we are a Level 1-plus school. Our school was on the closing list back in 2005 when I took over.

But now we are an investment school. Teachers are dedicated and work hard. We need funding for a new teacher to keep classes small and additional funds to purchase multiple resources to continue and strengthen overall academics. We have a vested interest in educating all of our children!

Letter to J.B.: Great kids. Great staff. No librarian. Extremely poor special education services. No substitute teachers. No time for planning. No time for anyone to provide mental health services for those in need.

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From: A teacher at Whitney Young High School on Chicago’s Near West Side

Letter to J.B.: Every teacher knows that well over 90 percent of the students with academic problems have serious problems at home and in their neighborhoods. In the suburbs, social worker and psychologist staffing levels are often five to 10 times what they are here in the city, where kids are dealing with way more challenges, not less. If you’re looking for bang for your buck, fund psychologists and social workers!

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From: A teacher in the Galesburg CUSD 205

Letter to J.B.: Our school is diverse in all definitions of the word. We have a diverse population in terms of race, money, and ability. We currently don’t have the money to keep all of the schools in our district open and are in the process of closing some of the buildings in order to get the others up to code and comfortable; many of our schools don’t even have air conditioning.

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From: A teacher at Kiefer School, a Peoria school that educates children with severe behavioral and learning challenges

Letter to J.B.: We work with students with behavioral and mental challenges who need more help getting mental health services. We’ve had children deflected from being hospitalized due to no beds being available.

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From: A teacher at Unity Junior High School in Cicero

Letter to J.B.: People often think that our school is “bad,” but the truth is, we have so many staff and students that work hard every day to bring positive change.